Madeleine Kamman has died at age 88

We have just learned of the passing of Madeleine Kamman, a pioneering
French chef, restaurateur, and mentor to hundreds of
chefs. Kamman was born in Paris and started her culinary
career in 1940 at her aunt's restaurant in the Touraine region of
France. She moved to America with her husband in 1960, where she
became a revered culinary instructor. She opened her own cooking
school in 1971 and helmed a string of cooking schools in the US and
France in a career that spanned over 30 years. She also hosted
a PBS cooking show that ran from
1984-1991.

In addition to these achievements, Kamman wrote seven
highly-regarded cookbooks and a memoir called 'When French
Women Cook'. While her teaching techniques were sometimes
considered controversial, Kamman had a profound influence on her
students, such as cooking teacher and author Joanne Weir.

When Kamman stepped down from her cooking school in 2000,
Weir noted that she incorporated history,
geography, geology and food science into her teaching and - years
before Harold McGee and others dived into the scientific aspects of
cooking - frequently lectured her students on the chemical
reactions that occur in the kitchen.

Kamman was the winner of multiple James Beard
awards, including Cookbook of the Year, and the James Beard
Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.